Han Xin's Challenge 2019: A Tale of the Founding of the Western Han

ISBN 10: 8776942686 / ISBN 13: 9788776942687

Published by NIAS Press, 2019

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 26375950005

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Han Xin's Challenge 2019: A Tale of the Founding of the Western Han
• Publisher: NIAS Press
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 8776942686
• ISBN 13: 9788776942687
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

The death in 210 BCE of China’s first emperor initiated a brutal power struggle between Xiang Yu, Hegemon-King of Western Chu, and Liu Bang, later founder of the Han dynasty; the lowly Han Xin also strove for advancement. For over 2,000 years, the resulting story has been celebrated in China. Even today its main protagonists are household names. This is an epic tale of courage and cowardice, honour and treachery, acted out by lords, officials and soldiers, mothers, wives and concubines, and has inspired great works of literature, performance and the arts. It is surprising, then, that only recently was a full version of this narrative translated into English by the same authors. A massive work, Western Han: A Yangzhou Storyteller’s Script reproduces, transcribes, translates and annotates a professional storyteller’s script dating from the late Qing period. In Han Xin’s Challenge, this story of the founding of Western Han has been made more accessible to the general reader without compromising the accuracy of the translation. Its text is also illuminated with artwork that brings the narrative to life and shows how it is embedded in Chinese culture, even today. The result is a sweeping drama, a page-turner, a story that anyone can enjoy

About the Authors

Dr Vibeke Børdahl, a senior researcher at NIAS, has been described as one of the most accomplished scholars in the study of Chinese oral literature. As well as doing much research on the interplay of oral and written traditions in Chinese popular literature and performance culture, over the past decade she has translated the full work of Jin Ping Mei into Danish.

Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Notre Dame, Liangyan Ge is seen as being at the forefront of current research on Chinese storytelling. His research interests also include premodern Chinese vernacular fiction.